Roped | Film Review

Hey Guys x

This film came out on Netflix ages ago now, and while I don't usually watch romance movies like this on Netflix, I had some time to kill, so I thought I'd give it a try.

When a travelling rodeo arrives in a town that thinks all rodeos should be banned, cowboy Colton (Josh Swickard) has to convince the town councilman (Casper Van Dien) to let the rodeo go ahead. But this becomes complicated when he falls for the councilman's daughter (Lorynn York).

As you can probably already tell from the description of the film, it's basically a Hallmark movie. A simple love story that you can watch easily enough without having to become invested.

The male protagonist of the movie, Colton, is immediately likeable and endearing, while the female protagonist, and his love interest, Tracy, isn't. You don't quite know from the beginning why there is attraction between them.

I found that you don't have to care about either the rodeo, or the vegetarian vs meat eater debate in order to care about the events of the film. The story is interesting enough without the audience needing to have personal involvement.

This film has the usual boyfriend drama, where having a boyfriend is the girl's only obstacle in terms of getting with the love interest. This trope is so 'been there done that', it actually makes me not want to watch romances.

And the worst thing about this is that, there were so many obstacles that stopped Tracy and Colton from being together - why did a boyfriend (and by extension almost cheating on a boyfriend) have to be one of them?

The best thing about the movie is that the main couple do have chemistry, and the film pushes the 'Romeo & Juliet' angle in a way that actually makes things more interesting, rather than overdone.

However, the main problem for me comes from the fact that the conflict resolution happens too quickly and way too dramatically. The film spent 3/4 of the movie telling us how strong the councilman's beliefs are - so how could these change so quickly?

Having said that, the film has a great, realistic ending that I didn't immediately predict, and the ending made me feel warmer towards the film as a whole.

Overall, this is a cute film that won't change your life, and probably doesn't warrant a re-watch. But it definitely deserves a first watch!

5/10

Lou